PHOTOS: Blood, Sweat and Braids

Bay Area high school girl wrestlers make their own path in a male-dominated sport

All photos by Alessandra Bergamin

Sweaty and flushed, Maria Patino picks herself up off the padded floor and storms out of the training room in tears. For the past hour, a dozen or so girls, including Patino, have run laps, done drills and tussled with one another as part of their training for the Albany High School girls’ wrestling team. Beneath her long-sleeved top, Patino’s shoulder is taut with sports tape, bracing an injury she sustained earlier that year.

Today, pushed by her shoulder pain and the stressors of high school, she is on the verge of giving up.

Gurleen Bhullar, Tatiana Lee, Maria Patino, Itzel Galaviz and Joanna Qiu press their backs into the padded wall as they wrap up a wall-sit exercise.

L: Gurleen Bhullar and Francesca Lopresti watch as coach Jason Griffin demonstrate a wrestling move. R: Natalia Urbas tightens her hoodie during training.

Malinda Ripley, one of the team’s coaches, emerges from the humid training room and crouches beside Patino, now slumped against the wall. Ripley is a high school and college wrestling champion who has competed internationally and is now the women’s director at California USA Wrestling…